I customized a collaboration workspace in Podio for a distributed content marketing team. The entire team (8, at one point) used it for everything from CRM and client sign-up, to project and service management.
Allowed to very effectively run a complex businessIn its simplest form, Podio is a very advanced web and mobile-based task manager. It allows one to assign tasks to others and be notified when those are complete. Tasks can be referenced to what it calls "apps" (more like modules, easy to modify). Once I learned I could customize and cross-reference these internal apps , I created an app called "Clients", "Deliverables", "Campaigns", and "Content Planner" (A comprehensive content calendar: blog, social, email, etc.). This allowed for project management of all deliverables for clients, from setups to ongoing marketing, bulk upload of deliverables and content calendar, and lots of other good stuff.
Killed email, with its annoying CC's and ReplyAlls
Team communications happen within Podio, ideally within the comments space of the app (much like we do on social media). For instance, to follow up on an article draft for a deliverable due next week, instead of emailing the team member, I'd make a comment and “@ mention” the responsible person within the content unit. When they reply, the comments become a history for all team members to see. We could @ mention the graphic designer regarding an image needed and bring her into the conversation that way.
This way of working reduced our internal email to practically zero.
Lets one have a big picture, and also dive deep into details.
Because of the way if works, if set-up correctly, One can have a calendar view of the work being done, or a task view, or table with progress indicators.
A single point for all business info
Podio can substitute your CRM software, project management, have custom modules suited to specific business needs, and integrate with outside SaaS tools.
Did I mention it has great iPhone and Android mobile apps?